Elder Scrolls' newest addition recieves 5 stars

One of the year’s most anticipated games, Skyrim, the fifth installment to the Elder Scrolls series, was released on Nov. 11, 2011 by Bethseda Game Studios. Stores held a midnight release that caused lines that were literally miles long in many places throughout the US. The cool release date, coupled with the rumors that the game would be even better than the last, it was a big hit for stores everywhere.

Skyrim’s main story line revolves around the PC’s (player character’s) efforts to defeat Alduin; the first is Tamriel’s primary deity, who is a dragon. This dragon, it is prophesized, will destroy the world. Set 200 years after the previous game, Oblivion, the game is set in the land of Skyrim that is caught between a civil war. Worse still, dragons have suddenly begun attacking towns and villages at random, surprising and frightening the locals.

The Good

There are so many awesome things about this game that I could go on for pages, but I won’t bore you with all of those words. My advice; if you really want to find out about this game, buy it for the PS3, Xbox, or PC and experience all of the epic-ness for yourself.

First of all, the graphics are amazing. From the largest mountain, to the smallest dragon scale, everything is crafted to clear visual detail and beauty. Traveling along mountain passes show the true clarity of nature and the beauty of forests, lakes, and animals. Fight scenes flow so smoothly that it is easy to sink into the game. With the ability to toggle between third and first person view, the player can choose their favorite gaming style.

After the beautiful scenery, the depth of character creation astounded me. The things that are available to tweak with the facial features, eye and skin color, plus the several different races that can be played leave the possibility that there may not be two characters alike.

Skyrim is an open world game, so it has other things to do besides follow the main quest. There are several different groups and schools that the player can join, including the Companions (the equivalent to the Fighter’s Guild), the Dark Brotherhood, and the Thief’s Guild. There are quite a few quests to go on with just those three, not to mention all of the locals that can also send the player on simple errands. In fact, the player can choose to completely ignore the main quest and fulfill these side missions to level up their character before he/she goes out to face the might of the dragons.

The Bad

There really isn’t a whole lot to say in this category, but there are a few little glitches that the creators of Skyrim missed. Of course, they are expected in such a large, high capacity game. So far, I’ve seen a floating dagger that wasn’t being held up by any magic, and a dead man stuck running in place - I thought he was still alive, even though the ‘search body’ option showed up over him.

The games physics are a bit exaggerated at times, however it does give a cool affect. Take, for example, a situation like this- your character is fighting an enemy with a sword. You perform an attack that causes your character’s sword through the chest of the enemy. This often is accompanied by a slow motion scene, for an epic affect. Then the body of the enemy is pushed off of the sword and often goes flying five feet as if gravity has been suddenly lessened. While it makes the character look as strong as Superman, it is a bit of a contradiction to the realistic style of the game’s physics.

Over all, if the game wouldn’t have had those little glitches here and there, it would have been perfect. In the end, I give it a 99.99999… well, you get the point.